No ride in this morning as Iím leaving from work for the weekend by car. I found it feels a lot colder out at 25F when you are trying to tie a ladder to the roof than when you are pedaling. It snowed hard on the way home last night, it was blinding on the downhills (forgot my glasses so I had to blink constantly) and had accumulated a couple inches by the time I got home. This morning I was surprised that there was 4-5Ē.

Seriously rainy in these parts. I was blown away at how much every creek, ditch, and gully swelled up overnight. I have this one little bridge I ride over where the creek is usually maybe 10 feet down below the road, and it was up to within a foot of the bottom of the bridge this morning... scared the heck out of me because I didn't see it until I was riding across, and then there's raging water RIGHT THERE. Major rain...

Yeah, no hope of snow for me with this one...warm storm. It rained like the proverbial 'cow pissing on a flat rock' all night at my place. It's awesome because we need it, but they're predicting the river to be at "flood stage" by Sunday. It's always either too much or not enough

Yeah not so much looking to riding in the wind.. As long as it is one direction I dont mind it but it was all over the place yesterday when I went for my state mandated 15 minute break walk, that I dont like.

Yeah we have plenty of flood warnings over here from all the rain. Was surprised at how much rain we have gotten so far this year and the fact that it is not supposed to let up all weekend, should make for an interesting weekend.

Anchorage is still cold, and with little snow... -5 at home, +5 at work, makes for a fun fat bike commute to work! Fun fact, Chicken, Alaska was the first AK city of winter '12 to hit -50 yesterday! I'd like some snow now please! At least by holiday!

Chicken was settled by gold miners in the late 1800s and in 1902 the local post office was established requiring a community name. Due to the prevalence of ptarmigan in the area that name was suggested as the official name for the new community. However, the spelling could not be agreed on and Chicken was used to avoid embarrassment.

Last ride for a bit. Went greet except for the fifth to the last turn. Looks like I hit some loose flint coat some vehicle deposited in the near tire path near the apex of the turn. That slid the back out and me into more flint cote and the bike slid to the left, at the point where I was out of the corner going straight. No warning. Bent my glasses shoved a lens into my eyelid, cut me deeply and bruised my face. Left a pool of blood in the helmet and on the pavement. One way to lose weight, I guess. i ride that corner all the time for years, no issues. Knocked me out.

With one eye working and morphine. I'll be back when I am back. I may not be able to answer. Spare pair of glasses are the old prescription and the right eye it swollen shut. Lucky. An empty dump truck could have rolled over my head.

Cost me my jacket, three light under layers, (two silk), two silk and one manmade leggings, and a helmet. Well my Santa now has a list.

Flint coat sux.

BrianMc - still with a brain, still Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin) and not typing too well.

I have an office job where I wear a dress pants and shirt. I want to start commuting to work a few days a week.

Since I will be wearing riding clothing while I'm on the bike, how do you suggest I take my work clothes with me? backpack ? commuter rack? i will be using my road bike. please include links to what I could use.

Bent my glasses shoved a lens into my eyelid, cut me deeply and bruised my face. Left a pool of blood in the helmet and on the pavement. Knocked me out.

With one eye working and morphine. I'll be back when I am back.

Whoa! That was some crash . Check in when you can and heal well.

A backpack is the simplest and cheapest way to carry stuff. I find them uncomfortable to ride with, but some actually prefer that way. If you decide for panniers or a trunk rack, there`s some cash involved, but more comfortable IMO- it`s up to you. Also, a lot of people who have to wear nice clothes to work drive in with a week`s worth and ride in until they run out of clothes. If that`s an option for you, you won`t have to worry about wrinking stuff.

Last ride for a bit. Went greet except for the fifth to the last turn. Looks like I hit some loose flint coat some vehicle deposited in the near tire path near the apex of the turn. That slid the back out and me into more flint cote and the bike slid to the left, at the point where I was out of the corner going straight. No warning. Bent my glasses shoved a lens into my eyelid, cut me deeply and bruised my face. Left a pool of blood in the helmet and on the pavement. One way to lose weight, I guess. i ride that corner all the time for years, no issues. Knocked me out.

With one eye working and morphine. I'll be back when I am back. I may not be able to answer. Spare pair of glasses are the old prescription and the right eye it swollen shut. Lucky. An empty dump truck could have rolled over my head.

Cost me my jacket, three light under layers, (two silk), two silk and one manmade leggings, and a helmet. Well my Santa now has a list.

Flint coat sux.

BrianMc - still with a brain, still Dazed and Confused (Led Zeppelin) and not typing too well.

Bad one! I'm not even sure what flint coat is but I'm going to try to avoid it. Sounds like you are going to be stiff for a while. Get well soon.

Pretty good commute tonight after several days of wind and weirdness (rain is weird for us). I didn`t loose anything to the wind, actually gained a couple rougue recycling pickup baskets . There`s definitely no shortage of mud in my yard, but apparently the flooding that was expected didn`t turn out as bad as it looked like- snow level dropped low enough to keep it in check. Tonight was cooling off, clear skies, and just a little breeze.

Tonight is my last weekend shift for the forseeable future, back to five day weeks for a while, then on to the furlogh days. The company I work for prints all kinds of stuff all over the world, but this plant mostly does the department store ad fliers that come out in Sunday papers, so late Oct until mid Nov we`re slammed with Thanksgiving Day ads, then the miscelaneous Dec sales, then finally post Christmas stuff. Tis the season to make a buck, falala la la.

Holy heatwave, Batman. It was almost 60F this morning. It actually felt a bit stuffy. The vultures are tapering off. A couple weeks ago there were about 80 of them flying in a massive cyclone over the park. It was pretty awesome. I had to stop and watch them for a while. I managed to get a decent estimate, but there were way too many to count.

Bad one! I'm not even sure what flint coat is but I'm going to try to avoid it. Sounds like you are going to be stiff for a while. Get well soon.

Chip seal is another name for it. I was still a bit groggy from being unconscious and on morphine when I wrote last. I hit something and it may simply have been a patch of tarry pavement that heeled me over for a hard pedal strike. The small gravel may not have been a cause. I broke part of my upper jaw, apparently, My eye finally opened some yesterday. Major road rash on the right side of my face and three cuts, two with stitches. My left hand is barely useable but it types much better than on Friday. The rest is par for the course and no hindrance to riding. My spare glasses aren't good enough to let me drive. So I wait new glasses. Could be worse. Nobody was following to run me over. I also did this with someone in the opposing lane with a cell phone who called 911.

Major bummer Brian, sorry to hear about that. Heal up quick! Sounds like an ugly one. And since no one else asked....how's the bike?

We got some flooding and crazy river levels this weekend... pretty nuts. "Flood stage" for the river is 12 feet, we went to 13.29. More rain on the way, but supposedly not enough to threaten...River's back down at 9' or so now.

Today's commute was a nice warm 36 degrees with light fog and spectacular sunrises through the fog. I should have stopped to take one because I might have won the photo contest today because i don't seen any other entries.

Originally Posted by rodar y rodar

9er, schmiener. Go fat!

I went 9er first. Ordered one up this morning. I am no longer "in the black" with the money I save commuting. I did actually try out a fatbike for the first time over the weekend. Not as slow as i was expecting. I still haven't got over the one that slipped through my fingers. Just because I went 9er doesn't mean I can't go fat too. I have amazing rationalization abilities.

Ouch, BrianMc. Glad you're relatively okay. Heal up quick. No commuting for me recently. Every time I go into the office to use my computer, it takes me 10x longer (or more) to get anything done relative to my home computer because the POS is so slow. Working from home, then.

Major bummer Brian, sorry to hear about that. Heal up quick! Sounds like an ugly one. And since no one else asked....how's the bike?.

Today headache and nausea. Tomorrow the Doctor appointment about the fracture. I suspect since I am no longer coughing up blood it will be like cracked ribs: heal yourself. He is needed to make sure there is nothing too wrong with my right upper molars aching a bit.

Bike seat right rear and bottom right brake lever some rash, Bar tape is history and right pedal is history, too much of the outside hoop is gone. I was in 48-16 and the IPhone says I was swinging the wide curve at 18-19 mph reading off the graph. So that's almost a ton of force 19-0 mostly by face braking. Helmet is cracked on the front 45 degrees. History. Always the over achiever!

Discovered the front tire will not hold air. Could have taken a sidewall wound in the crash, or the police were un-careful delivering it home, or that was the reason the corner went so badly so suddenly.